C78 White-headed eagle

"A strong opponent is not scary. What is scary is the cowardice that you don't dare to face in a challenge!" — — White-headed Eagle Lange

In a combat training room equipped with equipment from the new era, a man with short golden hair was constantly punching the puppet with a fist wrapped in red flame. A puppet made of high strength resin armor had good resistance, and even the flame on its fist was unable to cause the golem to show any traces of scorching. Even though the temperature of the scarlet flame on the man's hand had already reached six hundred degrees Celsius.

Six hundred degrees of heat, that was the sign that Su was proficient in level three fire elemental energy. And the man who was swinging his fist, was Solon.

Using all of his strength, he gave the golem one last strike. The flames on his fist dissipated and Solon's entire body reclined on the alloy floor.

This was an underground fighting training room set up by the Parkland family's base camp. At this time, Solon should be staying in the Dark Council to receive training for the blood rider's advancement. The reason he stayed at home was because he had suffered a three month suspension penalty due to Solon failing his previous mission.

Leah's blood sample had already been brought back to the Dark Council, and the three tube samples were immediately received by the Council's Academy of Sciences and studied. But just as Solon had thought, he should have brought back the living body specimen of the disorderly with him. And because of Leah's death, it was deemed by the blood rider's upper echelons that he failed to handle the mission properly, thus it was deemed as a failure.

Therefore, Solon appearing in the clan now meant that he was on leave, but in reality, it was a disguised punishment, Solon knew this better than anyone else. While he was on vacation for the past three months, the competitors in the blood rider could use this period of time to rise up. This would lead to a series of unpredictable consequences. What was certain now was that, not only the blood rider s, even Solon's position within the clan had been shaken.

Thinking about it, Solon remembered that golden eye. If a zero hadn't appeared out of nowhere, how could he have ended up like this? But the image of Su Kuang was still deeply imprinted in Solon's mind, and before he could forget about him, Solon did not dare or wish to come into contact with him again.

However, just because Solon did not want to come into contact with Zero, did not mean that was willing to let him go. In fact, he already had a target. That person was Kabu's father, and at the same time, was a fifth rank Sniper Specialist. Solon knew that when the other party found out that his son had died in Su Ling's hands, that person would definitely not let go of Su Ling.

Because that man had placed all his effort onto Kabu.

It was a pity that the man nicknamed White-headed Eagle had gone to a place far away from Little Elk Town after he retired. It was a long way from the redeveloped coastline after the Cataclysm, and it was inaccessible. Even if Solon had already sent out his followers two months ago, after calculating the time, his followers had only arrived at Elk Town two days ago.

And after hearing this news, in addition to using some special means of transportation, the White-headed Eagle would also need around ten days to be able to rush back. However, this was not important. As long as he could return, Solon believed that the time of Zero's death was not far away.

Thinking of this, Solon once again put on the light smile.

The Mainland continent was very big. In the fifty years since the catastrophe, many lands were brought back into the arms of civilization with the development of the companies and nobles. According to incomplete statistics, there were at least a thousand human settlements and bases that existed in the form of civilizations in the Mainland continent alone. However, these human settlements, big and small, only occupied a coastline from the east to the north of the continent.

On the other hand, from the continent to the east, nearly 80% of the areas were still unknown. That place was filled with darkness and danger. Even the Dark Council, the most powerful organization in the continent, the armed group had never planted a flag on the ground in the southwest before. There were too many unknown lives there, too many ruins that were shrouded in savage darkness, the light of civilization had not yet touched this forbidden land of life.

Therefore, the Southwest Land was an adventure for all sorts of Rankers. Some people brought priceless species or resources back to this mysterious land. Most of them were killed by the undiscovered mutated beasts that roamed this land, becoming a meal in their stomachs. Only a pile of bones remained on this desolate land. Sometimes, there weren't even any corpses.

Even so, there were still more people rushing towards this unknown domain. Just by looking at the Dark Council's various companies' networks, there were already hundreds of related missions. Whether it was Dark Council or the other corporate powers, their upper echelons were all eager to spread the secret of this land. To them, the unknown meant that a large amount of resources had yet to be discovered. This was a tremendous amount of wealth.

Elk Town.

This was a small town at the edge of Southwest Land. It was rumored that before the catastrophe, this small town was surrounded by fertile forest resources, and there were a large number of elk reproducing in this small town. The townspeople lived off the domestication of the elk, which was why it was called Elk Town.

However, after the Cataclysm, the elk either died or mutated into a ferocious species. A large part of the forest was replaced by sand and rocks, and the huge wounds on the ground naturally separated the little town from the mysterious Southwest Land. Until twenty years ago, a major from the Blood Knight led a thousand of his soldiers to the small town and set up the Elk Town as the bridgehead for the Southwest Land.

With the small town as the stronghold, the energy source of the Dark Council began to flow into the Southwest Land. In just the last ten years, the Blood Knight had invested one general, five Major Generals, more than ten Major s and hundreds of blood rider and so on. For the rest of the region that has been developed, this force has been sufficient to destroy all known chauffeurs and settlements along the entire coastline. However, throwing it into the development of the Southwest Land was like falling into a stone into the ocean.

It was as if they had disappeared, never to return to Elk.

Thus, the Dark Council changed his policy and opened the Elk Town to the rest of the people on the continent. Whether it was an individual or an organization, as long as they paid a certain amount of fees, they would be able to enter Elk Town to replenish their resources. However, all the adventurers who wanted to enter the Southwest Land had to acquiesce to a contract that did not exist on any paper media, which meant that they had to fulfill their duty of drawing maps for the Dark Council.

From the moment they stepped into Elk Town, no matter what status they had, the adventurers had always tacitly agreed that this contract was reasonable. If you don't, it's not as simple as slapping your ass out of town. No matter if it was an individual or an organization, they would be met with the Dark Council's terrifying revenge.

Two years before it began, the contract had established itself as irrefutable with the blood of hundreds of Adepts. Thus, at this point, no one was stupid enough to challenge the authority and martial power of the Dark Council.

As long as there were adventurers, there would definitely be a tavern. This was almost common sense, and Elk Town was no exception. The only tavern in the town, "Dragon and Beauty", was opened by the Dark Council. The price of the wine and services here was more than ten times more than what the other taverns in the continent charged. If not for the fact that the tavern was opened by the Dark Council and there was always a Captain of the blood rider stationed there, the tavern would have been wrecked by angry adventurers.

Now, the adventurers naturally had to quietly endure the exploitation by the council. Of course, coming to the tavern to drink and have fun was voluntary, the Dark Council would not force you to consume it even if you had a knife on your neck. However, there were very few adventurers who didn't like alcohol. Even though the people in the tavern were poor quality goods that were mixed with alcohol, there were still some adventurers who didn't get tired of it.

And even if you don't like drinking, it's undeniable that pubs are an important place to gather information. You don't have to drink, but you don't want information. To enter the Southwest Land without information was like stripping naked of one's clothes walking beside a Vicious Beasts. No one would be willing to do this.

The sources of information were, first, exchange, and second, purchase. There were adventurers who sold information, but only the owner of the tavern, the Dark Council, could sell the most accurate and valuable information. Of course, you don't need to count on being able to buy intelligence information that is above level 3 in the tavern. Those are all secret information of the Dark Council, and even if you have money, you can't buy it.

But recently, an adventurer had been peddling all kinds of intelligence reports in a tavern. Although this information was not enough to contain the information that the Dark Council did not sell, it was still much more valuable than the information that other adventurers or the tavern itself sold. There were already many adventurers who bought valuable information from the man, bringing it back several times more valuable than the information itself, and then happily left Elk Town.

In the eyes of the adventurers, they were all lucky people. Perhaps they might encounter other adventurers along the way, but as long as they returned to the base that was protected by the basic rules, they would be able to live without worries for the rest of their lives.

As a result, more and more people began to queue up to purchase information from this adventurer. This person's name also appeared on the tactical plate's computer of the tavern captain.

This man's name was Lan Qi, and he had the nickname of White-headed Eagle. His ability was the specialization in fifth rank, but in the previous half of his life, he was used to serve, the would-be corporate Parkland of the Dark Council. It was only five years ago that he finally left Parkland's valve and came there to adventure by himself. In the past five years, he had only a few records of entering and leaving Elk Town, and it wasn't until a month ago that he began to sell all sorts of information.

The captain of the Blood Knight looked at the black man with silver hair and beard on the tactical plate. An adventurer selling information was not worth it. The captain was also concerned about how long he would have to stay in this desolate place before he could be transferred back to the blood rider's main body.

The Elk Town was indeed an important stronghold for the Dark Council. blood rider that could be deployed here would gain additional contribution points after returning, depending on the length of time they were stationed here, in order to raise their base level. But that was only for blood rider s in the combat system. He was left in a semi-retired position, like the captain, and when he returned he was still just a captain. Even with the extra contribution points, it was still far from enough for him to be promoted to a major.

While the captain was worrying about his future, the White-headed Eagle appeared in the tavern again. However, this was the last time he'd appeared in a tavern. Because in the near future, he would receive a message that he had to leave Elk Town.